Time switch with mechanical clutch actuating arrangement



Q F. MORSCHEL 3,114,013 TIME SWITCH WITH MECHANICAL CLUTCH ACTUATINGARRANGEMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. '10, 1963 Filed March 21, 1961 IN VENTOR FRANZ MORSCHE L AT ORNEVY 1llllllllllllllfllII!!!llllfffffllffIlrffl/rI/llllldffl'lflllllI'll/Ill!!Dec. 10, 1963 F. MORSCHEL 3,114,013.

*HME SW-I'IQH WITH MECHANICAL CLUTCH ACTUATING Filed March 21, 1961E'Sheets-Sheet 2 I INVENTOR- FRANZ MORSCHEL i A r 7TTORNEY 3,114,013TIME SWITCH WITH MECHANICAL CLUTCH} AC'I 'UATING ARRANGEMENT Filed March21, 1961 F. MORSCHEL Dec. 10, 1963 s Sheets-Shei 3 IN VEN TOR" F5ANZMORSCHEL A OR/VFY United States Patent C) 3,114,913 TIME SWlTCIlIWl'iil-l MECHANICAL CLUTCH ACTUATlNG ARRANGEMENT Franz Morsehel, RueNoereth 15h, Eupen, Belgium Filed Mar. 21, 1951, Ser. No. W316 it?Claims. (Cl. 200 -38) This invention relates generally to a time switchand more particularly to a time switch whose operation is controlled bymechanical means as well as electromagnetic means.

Time switches of the type to which the present invention relates have inthe past involved a complicated mechanism for'operating a series ofswitch contacts. Because of the complicated nature of theirconstruction, previous time switches are rather delicate, hence limitedin their use, and expensive to manufacture. I

It is a general object of this invention to obviate the above and otherdifiiculties by providing a time switch composed of simple and sturdyparts which operate reliably and make it possible to use the timeswitch'for innumerable different purposes and to adjust it in variousways. Toward this end, the present time switch comprises in general aclock mechanism such as a driving motor and associated reductiongearing, a rotatableshaft, a clutch between the output of the gearingand the shaft, and elec tromagnetic means for operating the clutch toslowly rotate the shaft, In addition, the time switch includes at leastone switch and one member for actuating the switch, one of these beingmounted to rotate with the rotatable shaft and the other being fixedwith respect to the shaft, and one of these being adjustable withrespect to a time will be apparent from the following description inwhich reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing important parts of an illustrativetime switch made in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view on a larger scale looking in the directionof the arrow II of FIG. 1, showing various parts not shown in FIG. 1; i

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 looking in the direction of the arrowII of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIGS. 2 and 3 looking in the direction ofthe arrow IV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken on line V-V of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a horizontal cross-sectional view taken on line VI-VI of FIG.4; and

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross sectional view through the clutch of the timeswitch.

The frame of the time switch shown in the drawings comprises an invertedU-shaped bracket 1 and a plate 6 supported above the bracket by a pairof spacing bolts '7 and 8. Mounted within the bracket 1 is a clockmechanism comprising a drive motor 2 and its associated transmission 27.The output of the transmission or reduction gearing 27 is available atthe shaft 47 (FIG. 7), which carries at its upper end a clutch member 3.

Rotatably supported in the plate 6 is a shaft 5 carrying at its lowerend a clutch member 4 opposed to the clutch member 3. The shaft 5 isaxially movable in its bearing in order that the clutch members 3 and 4may be engaged and separated. Directly above the clutch member 4, apulley 9 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 5. Near its upper end a disk14 is fixed to the shaft, the disk carrying a time scale on its upperface. Directly beneath the disk 14, the shaft 5 has mounted on it one ormore switch-actuating elements. In the present illustration, two suchelements 15 .(FIGS. 13 and 6) and 42 (FIGS. 4 and 6) are shown. It ispreferred that the free ends of these elements extend beyond theperiphery of the disk 14- so that they may be seen when viewing the timeswitch from above and adjusted with respect to the time scale on thedisk 14.

The switch actuating element 15 is provided with an inturned lip 21, andthe element 42 has an outwardly projecting tongue 43. The lip 21 andtongue 43 are adapted to engage a roller 26 of a switch 25 mounted onone side of the bracket 1. Obviously, many different types of switchesmay be employed. For the sake of illustration a dead-center type switchhas been shown including two stationary contacts and a movable contactwhich moves from one stationary contact to the other past a dead-centerposition. Thus when the tongue 43 engages and moves past the roller 26,the switch 25 assumes the condition of FIG. 2, and thereafter when thelip 21 engages and moves past the roller 26, the switch assumes thecondition of FIG. 3. Mounted on the body of the switch 25 in alignmentwith the shaft 5 and switch 25 is'a stationary indicator 13. Thisindicator represents the starting position of the time switch and at thestart, the zero'marking of the time scale on the disk 14 is p0- sitioneddirectly under the indicator. It will be seen that. the actuation of theswitch 25 by one of the elements 15 or 42 will take place after apredetermined rotation of the shaft 5 from its start position dependingupon the setting of the element with respect to the time scale. I

The adjustment of the switch-actuating elements 15 and 42 may beadvantageously effected by means of the knob 18 rotatably and slidablypositioned on the upper end of the shaft 5. Fixed to the knob 18 is anarm 17 carrying a downwardly projecting pin 20. The free end of theelement 15 is provided with a hole 16 and the free end 44 of the element22 is provided with a hole 45 (see FIG. 5). A compression spring 19normally maintains the knob in its upper position wherein it may bemanipulated to bring the pin 29 directly over the hole 16 or the hole 5.The knob may then be depressed against the force of spring 19 so thatthe pin enters the hole 45, for example, and then by rotation of theknob, the element 42 may be positioned as desired about thecircumference of the disk 14. g

In order that the shaft 5 and hence the disk 14 are not rotated duringthe adjustment of the elements 15 and 42, it is advantageous to depressthe knob 18 sufliciently so that the shaft 5 itself is moved axiallydownward to bring the clutch member 4into engagement with the clutchmember 3. It is assumed, of course, that the motor 2 is not running atthis time, and so engagement of the clutch members acts to brake theshaft 5 and prevent its rotation. 'Should the clutch members already beengaged at the time that it is desired to set the element 15 or 4-2, theknob need not be depressed to this extent.

From what has been said above, it is clear that the switch-actuatingelements 15 and 42 must be mounted on the shaft 5 securely enoughso thatthey rotate with the shaft and do not move with respect to the shaftwhen they engage and shift the roller 26. On the other hand, theelements must be adjustable with respect to the shaft 5 in order to setthe time of operation of the switch 25. For this reason, theswitch-actuating elements are mounted as shown in FIG. 2 wherein theyare held fric- 3 tionally between the dislr 14 and a loclmut by means ofspring disks 3f, 32 and 33. It will be appreciated that a multiplicityof such elements may be thus mounted on the shaft 5, one beneath theother.

In FIG. 7, each of the clutch members 3 and 4 is shown provided with afacing, 34 and 35 respectively, preferably of rubber. It is advantageousto make the clutch members concave in nature so that a compressionspring 48 may be inserted between them. The spring 48 tends to separatethe clutch members at all times, and the shaft 5 must be moveddownwardly against the force of this spring in order to bring thefacings of the clutch members into engagement. Upon engagement of theclutch members 3 and 4-, the driving motion of the motor 2 will betransmitted to the shaft 5 which will cause the latter to rotate in aclockwise direction in FIGS. 1 and 6. The disk 14 and the elements 15and 42, of course, rotate with the shaft 5. In addition, the rotationproduces a tensioning of a spring 11 fixed at one end to the pulley 9,at the other end to a pin 12 projecting from the bracket 1, and whoseintermediate region passes over an idler pulley ill rotatable on thespacing bolt 8. The tensioning is caused by the winding of the springlll upon the pulley 9. The pulley i is employed so that a longer springcan be used which will have a more uniform effect on the shaft 5. Whenthe clutch members 3 and 4 sepa rate, the spring 11 will rotate theshaft in a counterclockwise direction and return it to its startingposition.

Under normal circumstances, the engagement of the clutch memsers isaccomplished by an electromagnet arranged within the bracket 1,comprising a coil 36, a stationary core piece 37 and a movable corepiece or armature 38. Mounted on the armature 38 is a bracket 39carrying an upwardly projecting bolt 46 (see FIGS. 5 and 6). The bolt 49passes through a hole in one end of a lever 23 the other end of which ispivotally supported in the plate 6. The movement of the bolt 40 istransmitted to the lever 28 through a spring 41 surrounding the bolt andpressing against the upper surface of the lever. At about its midpoint,the lever 28 is provided with a hole for accommodating the shaft 5, andthe lever rests upon a series of washers supported by the pulley 9. Whenthe coil 36 is energized, the armature 38 is drawn downwardly pullingthe bolt 40 with it, thus pivoting the lever 28 downwardly through thespring 41. As a result, the shaft 5 is moved downwardly to bring theclutch members into engagement. Note that since the downward movement ofthe shaft is produced through the spring 4-1, the shaft 5 can be movedupwardly to disengage the clutch even though the electromagnet is stillenergized.

The mechanical means for actuating the clutch com- 7 prises a cam 29,which may be a rigid bar, oblique to the axis of the shaft 5, fixed tothe plate 6, and a pin 39 fixed to the shaft 5 and projectingperpendicularly to the axis of the shaft. The cam 29 and pin 3t) are soarranged, that the pin 30 contacts the lower surface of the cam 29 whenthe shaft 5 is in its starting position. As a matter of fact, it isparticularly advantageous to make the spring 11 sufficiently strongerthan the spring 48 between the clutch members to permit the spring llllto continue to rotate the shaft 5 after the initial contact of the pin30 with the undersurface of the cam 29. This continued movement willcause the shaft 5 to move downwardly until the clutch member 4 contactsthe clutch member 3. The angular position of the shaft 5 at this pointis made the starting position of the shaft (i.e. the position in whichthe zero point on the time scale of disk 14 is directly beneath theindicator 13), and the clutch members thereby serve as abutment membersfor accurately defining the starting position of the shaft 5. Anotheradvantage of this type of arrangement is that since the clutch isengaged when the shaft 5 is in its starting position, if the motor 2 andcoil 36 are energized simultaneously, the shaft will begin to rotateimmediately with- 4 out any time delay which might otherwise beintroduced while the elcctromagnet caused downward movement of the shaft5 to bring the clutch members into engagement.

After the shaft 5 has moved through about one full revolution from itsstarting position, the pin 3t) contacts the upper surface of the cam 29.Continued rotation at this point causes the shaft 5 to be moved upwardlyaga nst the force of the spring 41 to disengage the clutch mem bers.This marks the position of the shaft 5 at the end of its cycle ofoperation. The upper surface of the cam 29 and the pin 36 serve more orless as a safety device to separate the clutch members in case theelectromagnct is for some reason not deenergized before the shaft 5reaches the end of its cycle. This prevents a repetition of the cycleand possible injury to the parts of the time switch, despite continuedenergization of the motor 2.

in practice, the present time switch may be used to control theoperation of a piece of apparatus or equipment such as a machine. Theelectrical connections betwee the time switch and the apparatus to becontrolled may be varied in many ways depending upon the circumstances.For example, one of the stationary contacts of the switch 25 could beconnected into a series circuit including a source of power, a manuallyoperable starting switch, the motor of the apparatus to be controlled,and the center or movable contact of the switch 25', and the motor 2 andcoil 36 of the time switch could be connected in parallel with the motorof the apparatus.

The operation of thetime switch would then be as follows: Assuming theshaft 5 is in its starting position and contact between the movablecontact and stationary contact just mentioned of the switch 25, closingof the starting switch will cause encrgization of the motor 2, henceslow rotation of the shaft 5, and energization of the motor of theapparatus. After a predetermined time interval, one of the switchactuating elements will move into engagement with the roller 26 andactuate the switch The apparatus motor will be deenergized as well asthe motor 2 and electromagnet coil 36. The spring 48 will thereuponseparate the clutch members and the spring 11 will return the shaft 5 toits sarting position. As mentioned above, if for some reason the motor 2and coil 36 are not deenergized after a full revolution of the shaft 5,the pin 30 riding along the upper surface of the cam 2? will cause theclutch members to separate.

An additional advantage of the present time switch resides in the factthat the switch actuating elements 15 and 42 may be adjusted even whilethe motor 2 is running and the clutch is engaged, without the danger ofdamaging the parts. This is because the switch actuating elements arerotatable with respect to the shaft 5. It should also be mentioned thatthe elapsed time during any cycle may be determined at any time bycomparing the position of the zero point on the time scale with theindicator 13, and the time remaining by comparing theposition of theappropriate switch actuating mechanism with the indicator 1.3.

The invention has been shown and described in pre ferred form only andby way of example and many variations may be made in the invention andin its mode of operation which will still be comprised within itsspirit.

t is understood, therefore, that the invention is not limited to anyspecific form or embodiment except insofar as such limitations areexpressed in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A time switch comprising a rotatable shaft having a startingposition, a clock mechanism for slowly rotating said shaft, a separableclutch between them, electromag netic means for actuating said clutch totransmit rotative' motion from said clock mechanism to said shaft, apair of cooperable switch elements, one of said elements being rotatablewith said shaft and the other being fixed with respect to said shaft,said switch elements being relatively adjustable to pre-set the time ofoperation of the switch elements, and means independent of saidelectromagnetic means for mechanically actuating said clutch at apredetermined angular position of said shaft, said predetermined angularposition being no more than 360 from the starting position of saidshaft.

2. A time switch according to claim 1 including a disk mounted on saidshaft and carrying a time scale correlated to the starting position ofsaid shaft and the speed of rotation of said shaft, and wherein saidrotatable switch element is adjustable circumferentially of said diskwhereby after rotation of said shaft from its starting position throughan angle corresponding to the setting of said rotatable switch elementwith respect to said disk said rotatable element will engage said fixedswitch element.

3. A time switch according to claim 2 including means for adjusting saidrotatable switch element with respect to said disk comprising a knobrotatable on and movable axially of said shaft, an arm fixed to saidknob adapted when said knob is moved along said shaft to engage saidrotatable switch member and rotate the latter as said knob is rotated,and a spring tending to return said knob along said shaft in order todisengage said arm and said switch element.

4. A time switch according to claim 1 wherein said clutch comprises amember secured to said driving means and a member fixed to said shaft,and said shaft is axially movable to engage and separate said clutchmembers.

5. A time switch according to claim 4 including a spring between saidclutch members tending to separate them.

6. A time switch comprising a frame, a shaft rotatable in and movableaxially with respect to said frame, a clock mechanism for slowlyrotating said shaft, a clutch member secured to said clock mechanism, anopposed clutch member fixed to said shaft, electromagnetic means formoving said shaft axially to engage said clutch members and therebytransmit rotative motion from said clock mechanism to said shaft, a pairof cooperable switch elements, one of said elements being rotatable withsaid shaft and the other being fixed with respect to said shaft, saidswitch elements being relatively adjustable to pre-set the time ofoperation of the time switch, a detent projecting radially from saidshaft, and a cam member having a surface oblique to the axis of saidshaft arranged in the path of travel of said detent whereby upon contactbetween said detent and said surface continued rotation of said shaftwill be accompanied by axial movement of said shaft.

7. A time switch according to claim 6 wherein the surface of said cammember faces away from said clutch members, and said clock mechanismrotates said shaft in a direction tending to bring said detent intoengagement with said surface whereby upon such engagement continuedrotation of said shaft by said clock mechanism will cause axial movementof said shaft to separate said clutch members.

8. A time switch according to claim 7 wherein said electromagnetic meansmoves said shaft through a spring thereby permitting said detent and cammember to dis engage said clutch members regardless of the condition ofsaid electromagnetic means.

9. A time switch according to claim 7 wherein said cam member isprovided with an additional oblique surface facing said clutch members,and including a spring for rotating said shaft when said clutch membersare separated, said spring rotating said shaft in a direction oppositeto the direction of rotation of said clock mechanism thereby tending tobring said detent into engagement with said additional surface.

10. A time switch according to claim 9 including an additional springbetween said clutch members tending to separate them, said spring forrotating said shaft being sufi'iciently more powerful than saidadditional spring to move said detent along said additional surface soas to cause axial movement of said shaft until said clutch membersengage.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,409,879 Manley Mar. 14, 1922 1,597,851 Weusley Aug. 31, 1926 2,073,756Osten-Sackeu Mar. 16, 1937 2,521,837 Digman Sept. 12, 1950 2,675,536Schlaf Apr. 13, 1954 2,891,617 Wharton June 23, 1959

1. A TIME SWITCH COMPRISING A ROTATABLE SHAFT HAVING A STARTINGPOSITION, A CLOCK MECHANISM FOR SLOWLY ROTATING SAID SHAFT, A SEPARABLECLUTCH BETWEEN THEM, ELECTROMAGNETIC MEANS FOR ACTUATING SAID CLUTCH TOTRANSMIT ROTATIVE MOTION FROM SAID CLOCK MECHANISM TO SAID SHAFT, A PAIROF COOPERABLE SWITCH ELEMENTS, ONE OF SAID ELEMENTS BEING ROTATABLE WITHSAID SHAFT AND THE OTHER BEING FIXED WITH RESPECT TO SAID SHAFT, SAIDSWITCH ELEMENTS BEING RELATIVELY ADJUSTABLE TO PRE-SET THE TIME OFOPERATION OF THE SWITCH ELEMENTS, AND MEANS INDEPENDENT OF SAIDELECTROMAGNETIC MEANS FOR MECHANICALLY ACTUATING SAID CLUTCH AT APREDETERMINED ANGULAR POSITION OF SAID SHAFT, SAID PREDETERMINED ANGULARPOSITION BEING NO MORE THAN 360* FROM THE STARTING POSITION OF SAIDSHAFT.